A skeleton appeared at a York bus stop in protest over service delays.

The model – holding a sign saying: “Still waiting for no 11 bus" – was put in the bus stop in Bishopthorpe Road, near the junction with Balmoral Terrace, by a South Bank resident.

She told The Press her actions followed “months of unreliable buses” – claiming she once spent over an hour waiting for a number 11.

And she criticised First Bus, which operates the route, for reducing the service to one bus per hour.

First York told The Press 90 per cent of its number 11 service arrived on time at the bus stop for the “majority of weeks” since the beginning of March to early May, adding that there had been “very few trips cancelled in the past two months”.

But the woman, who uses the route to go walking in Bishopthorpe, felt differently.

“We need an efficient, well run, reliable bus service. We don’t have it. I can’t count the number of 11s I’ve waited for that haven’t turned up,” she said.

“I once had to stand, in the cold, in Bishopthorpe for an hour and 25 minutes waiting for a bus. One didn’t turn up. It’s not good enough.”

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She added: “After months of unreliable buses and news that our much-used service is going down to one an hour, I’ve come up with this photo!

“At a time when we’re supposed to use cars less to protect our environment, why are the buses being reduced?”

The woman also called on City of York Council to “get First Bus working decently”.

Most services arrived on time at bus stop, says First York

A First York spokesperson said the company will continue to work to improve its bus services.

“We have reviewed the performance of our 11 service since the beginning of March to early May and this shows 90 per cent or more of buses arriving on time at this bus stop for the majority of weeks. For the remainder of this period punctuality has been at least 86-88 per cent,” they said.

“Reliability has also been very good with only a very few trips cancelled in the past two months although there were some delays during May due to congestion caused on race days and roadworks.

“We will always do all we can to improve performance and maintain reliability and punctuality. If a customer experiences problems with a service we encourage them to contact our customer services team on the day so we can investigate.”

Council's transport boss has 'every sympathy' for residents waiting for buses that don't arrive

Cllr Kate Ravilious, City of York Council's executive member for transport, said she has "no issue with this resident expressing their frustration in a light-hearted way and completely understand it".

“I have every sympathy for those residents waiting for buses that don’t arrive and will push First to improve its performance on those services like the number 11 where it is falling short," she told The Press.

"We have to recognise that residents will lose confidence in using buses if reliability is a problem, which is the last thing we want."

Cllr Ravilious added that the new Mayoral Combined Authority "offers the potential to franchise bus services" – something the council will “consider” and which “provides greater local control over how they operate”.

"We also intend to make significant enhancements to bus priority corridors as part of our Movement and Place Plan for the city, a key feature amongst others in helping to improve reliability," she said.